Field of the Invention
This application is related to medical pill dispensers, and more particularly, to automated medical pill dispensers.
Description of the Related Art
Medication management systems play an integral part of long-term care facilities. For example, companies recognized the need for pharmacies to provide customers a secure, affordable and fully customized solution for medication management.
Pill dispensing systems that dispense pills according to a pre-programmed schedule are widely used and are valuable in today's society. Such pill dispensers dispense different dosages of different pills at different frequencies and therefore at different times. Some pill dispensers have multiple pill chambers dispense pills contained within the chambers. However, each of these chambers contains only a single medication dose for a particular time. A single medication dose may include two, three or more different kinds of pill medications that are to be given at a particular time. Each pill chamber must then be individually filled with these different pill medications for a given particular time.
This type of pill dispensing system requires the chamber to be correctly filled with the various types and number of pill medication to be dispensed at a particular time. Thus, if a user requires medication four times a day, twenty eight chambers must be individually filled by the user for one week's worth of medication (i.e., one week's worth of pills). Additionally, the user is required to correctly count and place each pill medication into the correct pill chamber. This user intensive technique is prone to human error, makes it difficult to maintain the correct dispensing schedule and dose, and further leads to increased health costs as the result of non-compliance.
For convenience and safety, pharmacies provide the service of prepacking medications for patients using medicine trays. This process includes looking at all the medications of a patient, and determining how often a patient needs to take the medications. The medications are placed within predefined slots, such as having slots for morning and afternoon. Medications in the morning slots are taken in the morning, and so on.
A patient may take a medication dosage based on the predefined medication slots that are filled by a pharmacist in the respective trays. For example, four slots per day (morning, noon, evening and night) are configured within the tray. Furthermore, packs can be created by pharmacies that contain packages medications. Such a pack includes various medications that are taken at different times during the day. The medications can be identified graphically to help the patient visualize when to take them. A certain patient may use these multiple packs within a week, such as a different pack each day.
The medications can be placed within their respective slots of the pack so that a patient merely takes the medications in the slot at the appointed time. The patient does not need to count out medications or try to guess if the last dosage was missed. Many facilities and organizations assist patients by pre-filling the slots within medication packs.
However, even with the automated pill dispensing systems available today, many systems still rely on manual user input for both user prescriptions as well as for filling these prescriptions. In other words, the existing pill dispensing system lack one or more of reliably dispensing a correct number of various pills at predetermined times. In addition, customization of pill pack generation is virtually non-existent.
While the embodiments of the application are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments are provided as examples in the drawings and detailed description. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description are not intended to limit the embodiments to the particular form disclosed. Instead, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.